Читать книгу Cry Heaven, Cry Hell - Howard Gordon - Страница 5

Introduction

There is only one earth. It is composed of evil and good. Perhaps it started in the Garden of Eden with the Tree of Knowledge. Perhaps there are genes for good and evil. And then maybe we learn from our elders, peers, and experience a way of conducting our affairs. To accomplish worthy acts, we pave our road to hell. To avoid this road, we may sprinkle a few redeeming behaviors in amongst the rot. Al Capone found employment for Italian immigrants while he butchered many. Josef Stalin murdered millions, but he kicked Hitler out of Russia.

In this novel, I have created three characters that combine high ideals with low life behaviors and rages that originated in their past. Craine Mikawber killed people in his native Ireland and brought a criminal career to the United States. Rodin La Monde brings a hatred that spans the French and Indian wars for something done to his family and sought revenge by trying to weaken the French empire. Donny Clippingbird was saved from a bleak future on the reservation by being adopted by a Boston elite family. He used his influence to destroy white power. Their consciences become intrigued with building a museum dedicated to war dead of both sides.

However, one cannot teach an old dog new tricks and they find themselves using methods with which they grew up to achieve their ends. It is our judgment whether they do more harm than good and if their fates need to be determined by existing legal framework or by a framework that weighs good against evil. Is the law of our forefathers applicable or is our democratic life being threatened by new concepts by the word “terrorist”?

As has been said previously, there is only one earth. We cannot make it into 200 models, but we can structure it so that is has some flexibility for the people who populate it. Our forefathers devised laws that they felt defined a free society ruled by law not mob. They built in protective structures, but these structures became repressive and are growing in dictatorial aspects. At this point in our history maybe we should ask ourselves whether or not we want to follow in these directions. Hopefully, these three caricatures will provide a base for such decision making.